The Ethiopian Manuscripts

“The eight Ethiopian manuscripts in the University of Utah’s Middle East library were acquired in 1972 as part of the Martin Levey collection. Martin Levey, who died in 1970, was a leading scholar in the field of the history of Islamic science. The Ethiopian manuscripts had been donated to him by Russ Scoville. They are written in Ethiopic (Ge’ez), a Semitic language that is no longer spoken, but is still used for liturgical and other religious purposes by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The manuscripts have yet to be fullly analyzed and catalogued, but two scholars from the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University estimate that most of them date from the 18th century. Most of the books have wooden covers, and the pages are animal skin.”